Having brought music to ordinary Chicagoans two nights earlier at a free, hands-across-the-community concert in the city's Woodlawn neighborhood, Riccardo Muti took time Saturday evening to make nice with the swells whose bucks are a financial bulwark of theChicago Symphony Orchestra.

The occasion was the annual Symphony Ball, the annual CSO Women's Board fundraiser that supports the orchestra's operations and community engagement programs — the season's "most exuberant evening at Orchestra Hall," as Annette Dezelan, one of the event's co-chairs, called it. The dressy patrons seated in my vicinity clearly were inclined to agree.

On Saturday Muti was an altogether different man from the all-too-mortal maestro who was sidelined from last year's Symphony Ball — along with the rest of his fall residency — by severe gastric distress brought on by overwork and exhaustion. This time around, the maestro looked fit and rested and made jovial asides to orchestra members throughout the program. The concert was kept short so guests would have plenty of time for post-concert dining and dancing at the Hilton Chicago.

Even at the CSO's fanciest fundraiser of the year one was reminded the nation is deep in austerity mode. Gone were the enormous floral arrangements that used to festoon the Armour Stage. Virtually the only flowers on view were the red boutonnieres worn by the orchestra members. And the bill of fare was considerably less "gala" than in flusher times.

Still, one could hardly complain, given the eager brilliance with which the orchestra responded to Muti's precise direction.

He began with the overture to Verdi's "Giovanna d'Arco" ("Joan of Arc"), the same work with which he had launched his second season as music director Thursday at the Apostolic Church of God. Again he gave it his most vigorous and authoritative attention, and the orchestra's playing was more cohesive and confident than before.

This gave way to the demonic thrills of Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2, made all the more exciting by the muscular energy and astonishing technical prowess of Saturday's soloist, Yefim Bronfman. The pianist must be tired of being labeled a Russian specialist, but the authority he brings to this repertory can't be faked, and he showed his mettle particularly in the long, massive cadenza to the opening movement, where he kicked up a tremendous roar of sound.

So it went, from the perpetual-motion Scherzo (a thrill-ride of cascading 16th-notes), through the grotesque march that is the Moderato movement, to the torrential outpouring of the finale. Nor was there any lack of bite or commitment to the accompaniment supplied by Muti and the orchestra. It's worth noting that Bronfman, the 2010 recipient of the Jean Gimbel Lane Prize in piano performance from Northwestern University, will appear on the Evanston school's campus in recital Oct. 4.

There was more Verdi to close — the "Four Seasons" ballet music from his opera, "I Vespri Siciliani" ("The Sicilian Vespers"). The general neglect of this light, ingratiating score is puzzling, given its wealth of melody, delicious orchestration and abundance of color.

Muti practically owns this music, and it was fun to see him levitating like a dancer as he coaxed a reading at once shapely and characterful from the CSO, a few inexact entrances notwithstanding. Opportunities for various orchestral principals to seize the spotlight abound. Among the distinguished soloists were Eugene Izotov, oboe; Mathieu Dufour, flute; and Stephen Williamson, the CSO's new principal clarinet.

More Italian music — Nino Rota's music from "Il Gattopardo" ("The Leopard"), in its first CSO performance — led off Muti's first subscription program on Friday afternoon.

Rota is best known for his scores to films by Luchino Visconti and Federico Fellini, but Muti fondly remembers him as one of his earliest music professors and a longtime friend and mentor. (Muti's great teacher once played the entire score of Alban Berg's thorny opera, "Wozzeck," at the piano for him, the maestro told Friday's audience.)

The seven-section suite incorporates music from a youthful symphony of Rota's that later became the grandly romantic soundtrack to Visconti's 1963 cinematic masterpiece, "The Leopard."

Rota's music enhances the film's visual grandeur, yet its memorable tunes and lush symphonic sweep allow it to stand perfectly well on its own. Muti led a performance that carried the utmost conviction. I would love to hear him conduct some of Rota's purely classical output, perhaps a symphony or a concerto, in a future CSO season.

Muti and the CSO will reprise their program of works by Rota, Ibert and Tchaikovsky at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Symphony Center.